The Russian Soviet Republic, in January 1918, was declared “a free union of free nations,” a federation of national republics. Every nationality within the territory covered by the Soviets was given the right to decide, at its own Congress of Soviets, the conditions under which it would join this federation. And when certain nations which had previously been part of the former Russian Empire declared their complete independence, this was welcomed by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets.
But though, from its birth, the Soviet Republic recognized the rights of nations to determine their own fate, the surrounding States did not recognize the right of the Russian people to determine theirs. The result was that the actual seizure of power, which had been almost bloodless, was followed by four years of devastating “civil war,” when at least ten foreign armies co-operated in an attempt to suppress the Soviets. Finally, as a result of the united struggle of the Russian people, and the support which they received from the workers of other countries, peace was restored in the West in 1921, and in the Far East in the following year.
During this war the Russian Soviet Government again had an opportunity to state its position in relation to other nations. For, in 1920, urged on by France, the Polish Government was preparing openly to declare war on the Soviets. At that time the Soviet Government issued a manifesto which was reprinted throughout the world, and was widely circulated in Britain.
Here is an extract from this manifesto: “Your enemies, who are ours, speak falsely when they tell you that the Russian Soviet Government intends to force Communism on the Polish people with the help of the bayonets of the Red Army. Communism is only possible in countries where the vast majority of the working people have the will to secure it by their own initiative. . . . The reorganization of Poland in accordance with the interests of the Polish masses must be the work of these working masses themselves.” The essence of this manifesto was repeated by Stalin in 1936 in his interview with Roy Howard: “Every country will make its own revolution if it wants to, and if it does not there will be no revolution. For example, our country wanted to make a revolution and made it, and now we are building a new, classless society. But to assert that we want to make a revolution in other countries, to interfere in their lives, means saying what is untrue, and what we have never advocated.”
These two passages are extremely important, the one from 1920 and the other from 1936. For if the Soviet Government really recognized the right of nations to self-determination, and then it essentially had to hold this democratic view of the revolution in other countries.
The restoration of peace in 1921 and 1922 found the territory covered by the Soviets considerably extended. For in the process of the struggle there had been set up additional Soviet Republics in the Ukraine and White Russia, in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. At the same time, however, the economic position of all these territories was far worse than it had been in 1917, for the retreating armies of intervention had done their utmost to wreck everything which they left behind them. Railways were blown up and factories burnt to the ground. The Soviet Republics were faced with the problem of economic reconstruction at the same time as they knew that at any moment another attack might be launched against them, perhaps by one State, or perhaps by all the members of the League of Nations together; for, in the eyes of its founder, this institution was to act as a “bulwark against Bolshevism.”
The experience of the war itself, and the economic problems which it created, brought the different Soviet Republics into the closest contact with each other. Experience showed that still closer union was essential to future security. Therefore, in December 1922, a Treaty of Union was signed between the Soviet Republics; and the U.S.S.R.—the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—was in this way brought into being.
In this treaty it was pointed out that the world was now divided into two camps, capitalist and Socialist. “Only in the camp of the Soviets,” it goes on, “has it been found possible to root out national persecution, to create conditions of mutual trust, and to lay the foundations of fraternal co-operation. . . .
“But the years of war were not without their heritage. The ruined fields and idle factories, the breakdown of production and the exhaustion of economic resources which follow from the war, render the isolated efforts of the separate Republics towards economic reconstruction inadequate. The revival of the economic life of the country has proved impossible so long as the Republics lead a divided existence. Furthermore, the unsettled state of international relations, and the danger of new attacks, render imperative the creation of a common front by the Soviet Republics against capitalist encirclement.
“Finally, the very structure of the Soviet power, which is international in its class character, urges the working masses of the Soviet Republics along the path of union into one Socialist family.”
According to the Treaty of Union, a central federal Government was to be formed which would control defence and foreign affairs—including the establishment of one form of Soviet citizenship to cover the whole union, and also including the admission of new republics. The Government of the Union would also be responsible for introducing a general economic plan for the whole territory; for regulating trade, currency, and taxation; for deciding on the best methods of utilizing the land; and for controlling transport and communications, weights and measures. In addition, the Government of the Union was to lay down the general principles governing such matters as education and health protection.
The Governments of the republics which joined the Union were to have complete self-government on every matter that was not included in the treaty, and every republic had the right to secede from the Union if it wished to do so. On the other hand, however, if a republic passed any law which was contrary to the terms of the treaty, then this law could be annulled by the Government of the Union.
The Treaty of Union was signed in 1922, and ratified by the first All-Union Congress of Soviets, which was elected in the same way as the All-Russian Congress. Delegates were elected from all the territory now covered by the Union, in the proportion of one to every 25,000 town electors, and one to every 125,000 inhabitants of the provinces. The Congress elected a Central Executive Committee, which started to draw up a Constitution for the Union.
The original conception of the structure of the Union Government was that it should be an almost exact copy of the Russian Soviet Republic, but covering all the territory now within the Union. However, it was mainly as a result of the initiative of Stalin personally, himself a Georgian and an expert on the national question, that special features were incorporated in the Constitution of the Union in order to protect the rights of all the national republics from a possible domination by the Russians, who formed an overwhelming majority of the total population of the Union, and who thus would hold a majority of the votes in the Congress of Soviets. The Constitution was adopted in its final form at the Second All-Union Congress of Soviets in 1924.
The supreme authority in the U.S.S.R., as in each republic, was to be the Congress of Soviets. Delegates were to be sent to this Congress elected in the same proportion to population as the delegates to the Russian Congress. But the Central Executive Committee was to be given a special structure, peculiar to its position as Government of a Union of independent and equal national republics. Instead of being, as in the separate republics, a single body elected at the Congress of Soviets, the Central Executive Committee was to be divided into two separate councils, with completely equal powers in every respect. Each could introduce new legislation, but no law could be passed without being accepted by a majority in each of these councils separately.
How were these councils to be elected?
On the one hand, the Council of the Union was to be elected in precisely the same way as the Central Executive Committee had previously been; that is, by direct election at the Congress of Soviets. The Council of the Union would represent the delegates at the Congress, and, since an absolute majority of these delegates came from the Russian Soviet Republic, the Council of the Union would have a Russian majority. But this Council of the Union could do nothing without the agreement of a majority of the members of the Council of Nationalities.
The Council of Nationalities was to consist of representatives of the different republican Governments appointed in equal numbers. In the Council of Nationalities the Russians would, therefore, be a small minority, quite out-voted by the Ukrainians and the Georgians, the White Russians and the Armenians, together with the Uzbeks and Tadjiks and Turkmenians who had joined the Union later.
The Government of the U.S.S.R., then, was a unique compromise between the representation of the people, as individual voters irrespective of their nationality, and of the nations of the Union, as equal nations. Only in extreme cases was it likely that the two councils would not reach agreement on any particular question; while the scheme gave the smaller nations of the Union, though a minority of the total population, a large say in determining policy.
In case of disagreement, and if no attempt at conciliation proved successful, disputes were to be referred to a Congress of Soviets specially called for the purpose. However, no occasion has arisen where this was necessary, for the two councils have been able to work in complete harmony.
The problems involved in setting up this multinational State were difficult ones. In his speech to the Eighth All-Union Congress of Soviets, where the new Constitution of 1936 was adopted, Stalin says on this matter; “The Constitution now in operation, adopted in 1924, was the first Constitution of the U.S.S.R. That was a period when the relations between the peoples had not yet been properly adjusted, when survivals of distrust towards the Great Russians had not yet disappeared, and when centrifugal forces still continued to operate. Under these conditions it was necessary to establish fraternal co-operation between the peoples on the basis of economic, political, and military mutual aid by uniting them in a single, federated, multi-national State. The Soviet Government could not but realize the difficulties of this task. It had before it the unsuccessful experiments of multinational states in bourgeois countries. It had before it the failure of the experiment of the old Austria-Hungary. Nevertheless, it resolved to make the experiment of creating a multi-national State, for it knew that a multi-national State which has arisen on the basis of Socialism is bound to stand every test.
“Since then fourteen years have elapsed, a period long enough to test the experiment. And what do we find? This period has shown beyond doubt that the experiment of forming a multi-national State based on Socialism has been completely successful. This is the undoubted victory of Lenin’s national policy.
“How is this victory to be explained?
“By the absence of exploiting classes, which are the principal organizers of strife between nations; the absence of exploitation, which cultivates mutual distrust and kindles nationalist passions; the fact that power is in the hands of the working class, which is an enemy of all enslavement and the true vehicle of the ideas of internationalism; the actual practice of mutual aid among the peoples in all spheres of economic and social life; and, finally, the flourishing national culture of the peoples of the U.S.S.R., culture which is national in form and Socialist in content—all these and similar factors have brought about a radical change in the aspect of the peoples of the U.S.S.R.; their feeling of mutual distrust has disappeared, a feeling of mutual friendship has developed among them, and thus real fraternal co-operation between the peoples has been established within the system of a single federated State.”
And within this great federation, as we have already seen, the treatment of all nations as equals, and of all citizens as equals, irrespective of their nationality, has led to a great growth of national pride. In the U.S.S.R. to-day no citizen, Jew or German, Abyssinian or Italian, Negro or American, Indian or English, is ashamed of his nationality, is privileged because of his nationality, or, because of his nationality or colour, and is deprived of any privilege due to him as a working-citizen of the U.S.S.R. Such a country can indeed be called a Union of Nations, and many of the peoples of the British Empire will envy a unity based upon such an equality of peoples.